Coe-Brown pulls away from Kingswood

NORTHWOOD — Both coaches were singing the same song after Friday night’s game — many of their players are inexperienced at the varsity level and they need to pay more attention to detail.

The difference was the Coe-Brown Northwood Academy girls basketball team did a better job overcoming its deficiencies in a 61-36 win over Kingswood in Division II.

Although the Bears never trailed from the end of the first quarter on, the Knights were still within striking distance midway through the third quarter.

But Coe-Brown guard Haley Ruth buried a pair of 3-pointers to help give the Bears a 39-28 cushion late in the third and the lead grew from there.

“We’re young,” said Coe-Brown coach Dave Hartnett. “I graduated six seniors last year. We’re not doing the little things well. The first half we gave up 10 points because we didn’t block out on free throws. But they’re learning, and I think by February I might have a basketball team.”

Coe-Brown improved to 2-2, the same record it had last year after four games when it went 15-3 during the regular season. Kingswood dropped to 2-3.

“It’s frustrating,” said Kingswood coach Grady Charland. “I just felt like we beat ourselves. Little things. Five-second calls on inbounds. Kids not cutting hard to the ball. It’s like we don’t even want it. We’re afraid of pressure.”

The Bears went ahead to stay late in the first quarter. They scored four points in the final minute on a pair of free throws by Liz Peabody and a basket by Madison Stowell that put Coe-Brown up 14-13 after one.

The Bears led 27-22 at halftime and 44-30 after three quarters.

“The game plan was to pressure them and get them to turn over the ball,” Hartnett said, “which they did. Our problem was we weren’t converting on the turnovers. I think that will come with time. They’re so athletic and we’re not that big (so) we’ve got to be able to cover some ground and we’re pretty good at doing that.”

The Bears outscored Kingswood in the second half, 34-14, including 17-6 in the fourth quarter. The Knights made just two baskets in the second half. The rest of their points came on foul shots; they went 10 for 12 from the line in the second half.

“They started taking advantage of our mistakes and that led to some points,” Charland said. “I think that was the difference. They didn’t do that in the first half. They were missing a lot of shots. We lucked out, but that catches up with you.”

Coe-Brown featured a balanced offense. Abby Ahern led the way with nine points off the bench. Brooks, Liz Peabody and Madison Stowell finished with eight points apiece.

“In the first half we kind of came out slow,” Brooks said. “We’ve been having trouble the first three games getting into it. As a team I think we play better in the second half, but overall we played really well. We brought the intensity that we needed to. Pretty much our motto is ‘run the floor,’ and when we did that we got easy layups and that’s how we pulled away.”

Jennifer Schlim scored seven points for Coe-Brown and Brandie Valentine and Ruth each had six. All 13 players saw action for the Bears and 11 scored.

Kingswood’s Nicole Matarozzo led all scorers with 12 points, including eight in the first half, and teammate Danielle Wilkins added eight points.

“I think (Coe-Brown) is a playoff team,” Garland said. “Playing in this gym on a Friday night with the band going and everything like that can be an intimidating experience and we were in it for three quarters. We can use that as a confidence-builder.”